Peace talks between the Ugandan government and rebels aimed at ending nearly two decades of fighting adjourned on Monday for a week to allow for consultations, but it was unclear whether there was any progress, officials said.
The talks, which began on June 14 in the capital of autonomous southern Sudan, are aimed at ending 19 years of conflict in northern Uganda, which have claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and displaced about two million others.
”The delegates decided to adjourn the talks for a week because there are consultations that have to be done,” Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency spokesperson Obonyo Olweny told Agence France-Presse.
In addition, the chief mediator Riak Machar, the vice -president of southern Sudan, is scheduled to lead a delegation to meet LRA supremo Joseph Kony in the bush, he added.
The Kampala delegation said the talks were ”a success” but refused to elaborate on the progress. However, a mediation official said ”there was no progress to speak of despite the fact that the talks had started”.
”The one-week break was needed because both delegations wanted to carry out consultations with their seniors. We wanted to share out what we discussed with the government,” said Paddy Ankunda, a delegate for the government of Uganda.
Asked about the progress of the talks, Ankunda said they were ”very successful”.
The talks were nearly derailed on their second day after tough rebel rhetoric that accused President Yoweri Museveni of corruption and claims that the rebels were still a force to be reckoned with.
During the talks, the Ugandan government flatly rejected demands for a truce by the LRA and said there could be no ceasefire until a full peace settlement is reached, because the insurgents had developed a reputation of violating deals.
The peace talks in Juba are seen by many as the best chance to end the civil war, which is regularly described by aid agencies as one of the world’s worst and most-forgotten humanitarian crises.
But they started shakily after the LRA refused to include any senior leaders in their negotiating team, fearing they would be arrested on international war-crimes charges.
The LRA is led by Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet and mystic. He says he is fighting for the Acholi to oust Museveni and replace his government with one based on the biblical 10 Commandments.
His group is considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan authorities. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Kony and four of his top commanders. — Sapa-AFP